Blended Families and Intestacy Laws with Step-Children

Estate administration was significantly changed when the Massachusetts Probate Code (MUPC) went into effect on March 31, 2012. One of the major changes was that “blended families” were taken into account for the first time. 

Blended families are becoming more and more normalized as family structures evolve. That being said, it is critical to draft an estate plan that is tailored to each family’s unique circumstances. 

Blended families make it a bit more difficult to decide who gets what and how much. Do you give your step-children as much as your children, what about if you get divorced? If one of the spouses in a blended family dies without having children or having adopted the children of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse will receive the entire estate. 

However, there are certain situations in which the surviving spouses’s share is reduced in order to benefit the decedent’s surviving children. 

Essentially, the law “protects the decedent’s children by giving a portion of the decedent’s probate assets directly to them.” This will ensure that the surviving spouse does not receive all of the decedent’s assets and burn them on themselves or their children. 

See, Ann Hetherwick Cahill, Blended Families and Intestacy Laws with Step-Children, June 25, 2020.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.